Review - Spirit's Princess (Spirit's Princess #1) by Esther M. Friesner

Title: Spirit's Princess

Author: Esther M. Friesner

Series: 1st

Pages: 464

Published: April 24th 2012 by Random House

ISBN: 9780375869075

Source: Publisher via Netgalley

 

Description: Himiko the beloved daughter of a chieftain in third century Japan has always been special. The day she was born there was a devastating earthquake, and the tribe's shamaness had an amazing vision revealing the young girl's future—one day this privileged child will be the spiritual and tribal leader over all of the tribes. Book One revolves around the events of Himiko's early teen years—her shaman lessons, friendships, contact with other tribes, and journey to save her family after a series of tragic events. Once again, Esther Friesner masterfully weaves together history, myth, and mysticism in a tale of a princess whose path is far from traditional.

I Give This ....

DNF (Did Not Finish)

Aww....the joys of peer influence.   I added this book to my to read list because I have a couple other books by the author on my shelves that I haven't read yet.  I've heard good things about them and this one sounded just as interesting.  I like the idea that she takes real characters.  I was hoping this one would be good.

The problem started when I went to add it to my currently reading shelf on goodreads.  I noticed that it was getting a lot of low stars.  So I glanced at some of the reviews....I should know better.  A lot of people who are a lot more knowledgeable about the subject feel this book does not do justice to the time period nor to the character of Himiko.  Ok, I got that and decided to read anyway.

Right away I noticed that this book does not feel historic nor Japanese.  I've read other books set in Japan (both historic and more fantasy as well), and this is nothing like them.  I might have been able to get over that.   But, I found Himiko to be a character I wasn't interested in.  She was whiny and have little thought to how her actions might effect others.  She was always trying to prove herself, but did very little to show she wasn't just making poor decisions.       

I rarely give up on a book, but I managed to read about 20% of it.  This book is long (almost 500 pages) and I knew that I couldn't read that much more of it.  So, it went into the DNF pile.  I'm hoping the other books I have to still read aren't like this one.